Belarus

Europe

Region

Minsk

Capital

9,507,120

Population

207,600 SQ. KM

Area

$47.4 billion

GDP

$18,073

GDP per capita, ppp

Overview

Carved out of Russia’s east border, Belarus sits among a group of post-Soviet states in East Europe to the north of Ukraine. The nation claimed its independence in 1991 after seven decades under the USSR. Though landlocked, more than 11,000 lakes and ancient, enchanting woodlands cover the flat landscape.

Algeria is the largest nation by size in both Africa and the Arab world, and most of the nation is covered by desert. (Reza/Getty Images)

The city of Lubango, Angola, seen from atop the Tundavala Gap along the Serra da Leba mountain range, was home to Portuguese settlers in the 19th century. (Getty Images)

Soldiers of the ceremonial Regimiento de Granaderos a Caballo fold the national flag in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in front of the president’s Casa Rosada residence. (Rodrigo Abd/AP)

Bondi Beach, situated along the South Pacific Ocean on the east end of Sydney, is one of Australia’s most famous destinations. (Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images)

Schönbrunn Palace, a former imperial summer residence in Vienna, Austria, and paragon of historic Baroque style, was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. (Sergio Del Rosso/Getty Images)

Modern additions to the skyline of Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, offer a striking contrast to the ancient architecture and open-air markets of the Old City. (Reza/Getty Images)

A traditional fish trap is seen on the coast of Bahrain, a name that translates to “the two seas” in Arabic. (Getty Images)

One of the few remaining residents is shown in Bartolomeyevka, a former village located in southeastern Belarus that was contaminated following the 1986 nuclear meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

The Sistine Chapel of Los Andes was built in 1608 during Bolivia’s colonial period to evangelize the country’s indigenous people into the Roman Catholic faith, now practiced by three-quarters of Bolivians. (Juan Karita/AP)

People enjoy football, a popular national pastime, on Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janieiro, Brazil, a small part of the country’s 4,600 miles of coastline along the Atlantic Ocean. (Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images)

The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia, was built to honor fallen soldiers in a 19th century war that freed the country from centuries of rule under the Ottoman Empire. (Valentina Petrova/AP)

Toronto is the most populous city in Canada, a high-tech industrial society with a high quality of living. (George Rose/Getty Images)

China has been one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies for decades, and the Lujiazui Financial District along the Huangpu River in Shanghai is a key business hub. (Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images)

Bolivar Square in Colombia’s capital, Bogota, has been central to the county’s history for centuries, and buildings around the plaza house parliament, the nation’s top court and more. (Mariusz Kluzniak/Getty Images)

Exports of agricultural products form the backbone of Costa Rica’s economy, and landscapes of jungles, forests and coastlines have helped develop the country’s international reputation for ecotourism. (Keith Binns/Getty Images)

Medieval fortresses, Baroque churches and winding roads through coastal towns such as Split, pictured, define the landscape of Croatia, the most recent country to join the European Union. (Getty Images)

The Vltava River flows through the center of Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic and historic cultural center for the region. (Uyen Le/Getty Images)

Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, serves as a hub connecting Northern Europe with the rest of the world by way of airport, bridge and port. (Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images)

Punta Cana and other major resort towns have helped the young, urban nation of theDominican Republic become one of the leading tourist destinations in the Caribbean. (Erika Santelices/AFP/Getty Images)

A farmer on a horse looks at the eruption of Tungurahua, a volcano in Ecuador's section of the Andes mountain range. (Kseniya Ragozina/Getty Images)

Egypt, home to landmarks like the Great Sphinx and the Pyramid of Khafre, is the site of one of the world’s earliest and greatest civilizations. (Mohammed El-Shahed/AFP/Getty Images)

People relax inside Temppeliaukio Church, also called the Rock Church because it was built inside solid rock, in the center of Helsinki, Finland. (Getty Images)

Pigeons fly past a bride and groom photographed at the Trocadero Plaza, just opposite the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. (Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images)

The Reichstag, home of the German parliament, is among Berlin’s major landmarks and a favorite tourist destination in Germany. (Christian Marquardt/Getty Images)

Ghana was one of the first places in sub-Saharan Africa to attract European traders. This 15th-century fortress was used as a slave transit point from Africa to America. (M.Torres/Getty Images)

Greekcivilization is credited with creating the concept of democracy as well as the ancient Olympic Games and laying Western foundations in science, the arts and philosophy. (Petros Giannakouris/AP)

The sun sets over Guatemala’s Tikal National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage property and one of the major sites of Mayan civilization. (Alex Milan Tracy/SIPA/AP)

The Chain Bridge spans the Danube River between Buda and Pest, the western and eastern sides of Hungary’s capital, Budapest. (Steven Swinnen/Getty Images)

A bride with a henna tattoo visits the Taj Mahal, one of India’s most famous landmarks. (Getty Images)

Made up of a chain of thousands of islands between Asia and Australia, Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state and the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation. (Dita Alangkara/AP)

A school group tours the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, one of Iran’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites. (Brook Mitchell/REX/AP)

A signature scene in Ireland: a small dirt road winds through rolling hills in County Clare near the Atlantic Ocean. (Alberto Loyo/Getty Images)

People relax on a portion of a wall in the Old City portion of Acre, Israel, a UNESCO World Heritage site. (Getty Images)

The 17-foot sculpture of David, created by Michelangelo at the beginning of the 16th century, towers over patrons of the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence, Italy. (Fredrik Von Erichsen/AP)

Gardeners work by Kawaguchi Lake, with Mount Fuji in the background, near the northern Japanese resort town of Fujikawaguchiko. (Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images)

People gaze upon Amman, Jordan’s capital, and with a population of 4 million, the country’s most populous city. (Jennifer Hayes/Getty Images)

The Khazret Sultan Mosque, one of the largest mosques in Central Asia, is located in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana. (Getty Images)

The sun near the horizon forms a backdrop to elephant in the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. (Getty Images)

A teenager sits outside the Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Center in the Latvian city of Daugavpils. (Pierre Crom/Getty Images)

A dark sky contrasts the remaining columns of the Temple of Jupiter at Baalbeck, the ancient Roman-era ruins in eastern Lebanon and a designated UNESCO World Heritage site. (Ayse Topbas/Getty Images)

Vianden Castle, whose origins date to the 11th century, overlooks the small town of Vianden in northeast Luxembourg. (Robert Harding/Getty Images)

The towering Petronas Towers form a backdrop to a child playing at a park in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital. (Joshua Paul/AP)

People are seen on a bustling street in Mexico City, the oldest capital city in the Americas and the second-most populous city in the Western Hemisphere. (Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images)

A look over the Jemma El Fna Square, a marketplace and the main square in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh that dates to the city’s founding in the 11th century. (Getty Images)

Two young Buddhist monks pray inside a temple in the town of Bagan, in central Myanmar, a region that hosts thousands of temples and pagodas and is increasingly popular with tourists. (Getty Images)

A canal cruise boat navigates on Herengracht canal, as dusk falls over the center of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. (Peter Dejong/AP)

A view of Queenstown and The Remarkables, a mountain range on the southern edge of the South Island of New Zealand. (Getty Images)

A woman in a bus in the foreground looks upon another woman in the Nigerian city of Ibadan, the cultural home of the Yoruba people. (Jon Gambrell/AP)

The skyline of Oslo comes alive with lights as dusk falls on Norway’s capital and most populous city. (Getty Images)

A woman in an abaya gown walks toward the giant arch at the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, the main mosque Oman’s capital city of Muscat. (Getty Images)

People set up a fair at a park in Rawalpindi, known as one of Pakistan’s “twin cities,” along with nearby capital Islamabad. (Anjum Naveed/AP)

Clouds and mist float around the ruins of the 15th-century Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, which overlooks the Sacred Valley in Peru. (Getty Images)

Sunshine illuminates Batad, part of the larger Banaue Terraces, 2,000-year-old terraces in the mountainous northern area of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. (Getty Images)

The main square in Krakow features Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture in Poland’s second-largest city. (Jean-Philippe Tournut/Getty Images)

People at the Praça do Comércio, a central square in Portugal, Lisbon, walk past the equestrian statue of Joseph I of Portugal and the Arco da Rua Augusta. (Dominik Bindl/Getty Images)

The patio arches of the Museum of Islamic Art frame a panoramic view of Doha, Qatar’s capital and largest city. (Getty Images)

A view of the historic center of Sibiu, located in Romania’s Transylvania region and considered one of the country’s most important cultural centers. (Daniel Migailescu/AFP/Getty Images)

The iconic minarets of St. Basil’s Cathedral tower over people in Red Square, the central square of the Russian capital Moscow. (Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

The Nabataean archaeological site of al-Hijr resides near the northwestern town of al-Ula in Saudi Arabia. (Fayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty Images)

Musicians in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, a small country that once was the center of the larger six-republic Yugoslavia. (Marko Drobnjakovic/AP)

Singapore is a bustling metropolis in Southeast Asia and home to one of the world’s busiest ports. (Charles Pertwee/Corbis/AP)

Ljubljana, pictured after a snowfall, is the capital of Slovenia, a small country in southern Central Europe, bordered by Croatia, Hungary, Austria, Italy and the Adriatic Sea. (Marco Secchi/Getty Images)

Table Mountain, one of South Africa’s iconic images and a popular tourist attraction, overlooks the city of Cape Town. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

A tour boat crew member stands on deck with the Han River and Seoul skyline in the background in South Korea. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)

The illuminated ruins of a Moorish castle sit atop the city of Montefrio and offer a commanding view of the surrounding valleys in the Spanish province of Granada. (Getty Images)

Buddhist monks stand near the sea in Colombo, Sri Lanka, an island country which sits just off the southeast coast of India. (Eranga Jayawardena/AP)

A guard stands in front of the Royal Palace in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, a country that is one of the largest in the European Union by land mass. (Henrik Montgomery/AFP/Getty Images)

Youth jump into the Indian Ocean along the coast of Tanzania, an East African country that also includes the Zanzibar Archipelago. (Mosa'ab Elshamy/AP)

Wat Benchamabophit, a Buddhist temple in Thailand’s capital of Bangkok, is one of the city’s most popular tourist destinations. (Getty Images)

Street vendors are shown in Sidi Bou Said, a small coastal town in Tunisia with a reputation as a home for artists. (Lionel Bonadventure/AFP/Getty Images)

A woman visits the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of secular Turkey, in Ankara. (Vadim Ghirda/AP)

The cathedral of Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev is one of the city's best known landmarks in Ukraine, a nation that borders the Black and Azov seas and several Eastern European countries. (Getty Images)

Camels walk along sand dunes in the Mazayin Dhafra Camel Festival in the desert near the city of Madinat Zayed, in the United Arab Emirates. (Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images)

A double-decker bus travels through Piccadilly in London, capital of the United Kingdom, which includes England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

The National World War II Memorial stands on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., capital of the United States. (Brett Ziegler for USN&WR)

Cerro Pan de Azúcar, or Sugar Loaf Hill, forms a backdrop to the southern coastal resort city of Piriápolis in Uruguay. (Getty Images)

A woman hawks flowers along a street in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, a Southeast Asian country that shares its borders with Cambodia, China, Laos and the South China Sea. (Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP/Getty Images)

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Algeria is the largest nation by size in both Africa and the Arab world, and most of the nation is covered by desert. (Reza/Getty Images)

The city of Lubango, Angola, seen from atop the Tundavala Gap along the Serra da Leba mountain range, was home to Portuguese settlers in the 19th century. (Getty Images)

Soldiers of the ceremonial Regimiento de Granaderos a Caballo fold the national flag in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in front of the president’s Casa Rosada residence. (Rodrigo Abd/AP)

Bondi Beach, situated along the South Pacific Ocean on the east end of Sydney, is one of Australia’s most famous destinations. (Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images)

Schönbrunn Palace, a former imperial summer residence in Vienna, Austria, and paragon of historic Baroque style, was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. (Sergio Del Rosso/Getty Images)

Modern additions to the skyline of Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, offer a striking contrast to the ancient architecture and open-air markets of the Old City. (Reza/Getty Images)

A traditional fish trap is seen on the coast of Bahrain, a name that translates to “the two seas” in Arabic. (Getty Images)

One of the few remaining residents is shown in Bartolomeyevka, a former village located in southeastern Belarus that was contaminated following the 1986 nuclear meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

The Sistine Chapel of Los Andes was built in 1608 during Bolivia’s colonial period to evangelize the country’s indigenous people into the Roman Catholic faith, now practiced by three-quarters of Bolivians. (Juan Karita/AP)

People enjoy football, a popular national pastime, on Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janieiro, Brazil, a small part of the country’s 4,600 miles of coastline along the Atlantic Ocean. (Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images)

The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia, was built to honor fallen soldiers in a 19th century war that freed the country from centuries of rule under the Ottoman Empire. (Valentina Petrova/AP)

Toronto is the most populous city in Canada, a high-tech industrial society with a high quality of living. (George Rose/Getty Images)

China has been one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies for decades, and the Lujiazui Financial District along the Huangpu River in Shanghai is a key business hub. (Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images)

Bolivar Square in Colombia’s capital, Bogota, has been central to the county’s history for centuries, and buildings around the plaza house parliament, the nation’s top court and more. (Mariusz Kluzniak/Getty Images)

Exports of agricultural products form the backbone of Costa Rica’s economy, and landscapes of jungles, forests and coastlines have helped develop the country’s international reputation for ecotourism. (Keith Binns/Getty Images)

Medieval fortresses, Baroque churches and winding roads through coastal towns such as Split, pictured, define the landscape of Croatia, the most recent country to join the European Union. (Getty Images)

The Vltava River flows through the center of Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic and historic cultural center for the region. (Uyen Le/Getty Images)

Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, serves as a hub connecting Northern Europe with the rest of the world by way of airport, bridge and port. (Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images)

Punta Cana and other major resort towns have helped the young, urban nation of theDominican Republic become one of the leading tourist destinations in the Caribbean. (Erika Santelices/AFP/Getty Images)

A farmer on a horse looks at the eruption of Tungurahua, a volcano in Ecuador's section of the Andes mountain range. (Kseniya Ragozina/Getty Images)

Egypt, home to landmarks like the Great Sphinx and the Pyramid of Khafre, is the site of one of the world’s earliest and greatest civilizations. (Mohammed El-Shahed/AFP/Getty Images)

People relax inside Temppeliaukio Church, also called the Rock Church because it was built inside solid rock, in the center of Helsinki, Finland. (Getty Images)

Pigeons fly past a bride and groom photographed at the Trocadero Plaza, just opposite the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. (Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images)

The Reichstag, home of the German parliament, is among Berlin’s major landmarks and a favorite tourist destination in Germany. (Christian Marquardt/Getty Images)

Ghana was one of the first places in sub-Saharan Africa to attract European traders. This 15th-century fortress was used as a slave transit point from Africa to America. (M.Torres/Getty Images)

Greekcivilization is credited with creating the concept of democracy as well as the ancient Olympic Games and laying Western foundations in science, the arts and philosophy. (Petros Giannakouris/AP)

The sun sets over Guatemala’s Tikal National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage property and one of the major sites of Mayan civilization. (Alex Milan Tracy/SIPA/AP)

The Chain Bridge spans the Danube River between Buda and Pest, the western and eastern sides of Hungary’s capital, Budapest. (Steven Swinnen/Getty Images)

A bride with a henna tattoo visits the Taj Mahal, one of India’s most famous landmarks. (Getty Images)

Made up of a chain of thousands of islands between Asia and Australia, Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state and the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation. (Dita Alangkara/AP)

A school group tours the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, one of Iran’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites. (Brook Mitchell/REX/AP)

A signature scene in Ireland: a small dirt road winds through rolling hills in County Clare near the Atlantic Ocean. (Alberto Loyo/Getty Images)

People relax on a portion of a wall in the Old City portion of Acre, Israel, a UNESCO World Heritage site. (Getty Images)

The 17-foot sculpture of David, created by Michelangelo at the beginning of the 16th century, towers over patrons of the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence, Italy. (Fredrik Von Erichsen/AP)

Gardeners work by Kawaguchi Lake, with Mount Fuji in the background, near the northern Japanese resort town of Fujikawaguchiko. (Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images)

People gaze upon Amman, Jordan’s capital, and with a population of 4 million, the country’s most populous city. (Jennifer Hayes/Getty Images)

The Khazret Sultan Mosque, one of the largest mosques in Central Asia, is located in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana. (Getty Images)

The sun near the horizon forms a backdrop to elephant in the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. (Getty Images)

A teenager sits outside the Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Center in the Latvian city of Daugavpils. (Pierre Crom/Getty Images)

A dark sky contrasts the remaining columns of the Temple of Jupiter at Baalbeck, the ancient Roman-era ruins in eastern Lebanon and a designated UNESCO World Heritage site. (Ayse Topbas/Getty Images)

Vianden Castle, whose origins date to the 11th century, overlooks the small town of Vianden in northeast Luxembourg. (Robert Harding/Getty Images)

The towering Petronas Towers form a backdrop to a child playing at a park in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital. (Joshua Paul/AP)

People are seen on a bustling street in Mexico City, the oldest capital city in the Americas and the second-most populous city in the Western Hemisphere. (Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images)

A look over the Jemma El Fna Square, a marketplace and the main square in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh that dates to the city’s founding in the 11th century. (Getty Images)

Two young Buddhist monks pray inside a temple in the town of Bagan, in central Myanmar, a region that hosts thousands of temples and pagodas and is increasingly popular with tourists. (Getty Images)

A canal cruise boat navigates on Herengracht canal, as dusk falls over the center of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. (Peter Dejong/AP)

A view of Queenstown and The Remarkables, a mountain range on the southern edge of the South Island of New Zealand. (Getty Images)

A woman in a bus in the foreground looks upon another woman in the Nigerian city of Ibadan, the cultural home of the Yoruba people. (Jon Gambrell/AP)

The skyline of Oslo comes alive with lights as dusk falls on Norway’s capital and most populous city. (Getty Images)

A woman in an abaya gown walks toward the giant arch at the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, the main mosque Oman’s capital city of Muscat. (Getty Images)

People set up a fair at a park in Rawalpindi, known as one of Pakistan’s “twin cities,” along with nearby capital Islamabad. (Anjum Naveed/AP)

Clouds and mist float around the ruins of the 15th-century Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, which overlooks the Sacred Valley in Peru. (Getty Images)

Sunshine illuminates Batad, part of the larger Banaue Terraces, 2,000-year-old terraces in the mountainous northern area of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. (Getty Images)

The main square in Krakow features Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture in Poland’s second-largest city. (Jean-Philippe Tournut/Getty Images)

People at the Praça do Comércio, a central square in Portugal, Lisbon, walk past the equestrian statue of Joseph I of Portugal and the Arco da Rua Augusta. (Dominik Bindl/Getty Images)

The patio arches of the Museum of Islamic Art frame a panoramic view of Doha, Qatar’s capital and largest city. (Getty Images)

A view of the historic center of Sibiu, located in Romania’s Transylvania region and considered one of the country’s most important cultural centers. (Daniel Migailescu/AFP/Getty Images)

The iconic minarets of St. Basil’s Cathedral tower over people in Red Square, the central square of the Russian capital Moscow. (Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

The Nabataean archaeological site of al-Hijr resides near the northwestern town of al-Ula in Saudi Arabia. (Fayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty Images)

Musicians in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, a small country that once was the center of the larger six-republic Yugoslavia. (Marko Drobnjakovic/AP)

Singapore is a bustling metropolis in Southeast Asia and home to one of the world’s busiest ports. (Charles Pertwee/Corbis/AP)

Ljubljana, pictured after a snowfall, is the capital of Slovenia, a small country in southern Central Europe, bordered by Croatia, Hungary, Austria, Italy and the Adriatic Sea. (Marco Secchi/Getty Images)

Table Mountain, one of South Africa’s iconic images and a popular tourist attraction, overlooks the city of Cape Town. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

A tour boat crew member stands on deck with the Han River and Seoul skyline in the background in South Korea. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)

The illuminated ruins of a Moorish castle sit atop the city of Montefrio and offer a commanding view of the surrounding valleys in the Spanish province of Granada. (Getty Images)

Buddhist monks stand near the sea in Colombo, Sri Lanka, an island country which sits just off the southeast coast of India. (Eranga Jayawardena/AP)

A guard stands in front of the Royal Palace in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, a country that is one of the largest in the European Union by land mass. (Henrik Montgomery/AFP/Getty Images)

Youth jump into the Indian Ocean along the coast of Tanzania, an East African country that also includes the Zanzibar Archipelago. (Mosa'ab Elshamy/AP)

Wat Benchamabophit, a Buddhist temple in Thailand’s capital of Bangkok, is one of the city’s most popular tourist destinations. (Getty Images)

Street vendors are shown in Sidi Bou Said, a small coastal town in Tunisia with a reputation as a home for artists. (Lionel Bonadventure/AFP/Getty Images)

A woman visits the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of secular Turkey, in Ankara. (Vadim Ghirda/AP)

The cathedral of Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev is one of the city's best known landmarks in Ukraine, a nation that borders the Black and Azov seas and several Eastern European countries. (Getty Images)

Camels walk along sand dunes in the Mazayin Dhafra Camel Festival in the desert near the city of Madinat Zayed, in the United Arab Emirates. (Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images)

A double-decker bus travels through Piccadilly in London, capital of the United Kingdom, which includes England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

The National World War II Memorial stands on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., capital of the United States. (Brett Ziegler for USN&WR)

Cerro Pan de Azúcar, or Sugar Loaf Hill, forms a backdrop to the southern coastal resort city of Piriápolis in Uruguay. (Getty Images)

A woman hawks flowers along a street in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, a Southeast Asian country that shares its borders with Cambodia, China, Laos and the South China Sea. (Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP/Getty Images)

Despite operating under an autonomous government, Belarus maintains extremely close political and economic ties with Russia. The two countries agreed to create a two-state union in 1999, but the treaty has not yet been seriously implemented. Isolationist trade policies are fueled by priority access to cheap oil from Russia, a relationship that has been called into question more than once in the last decade.

The Eurasian Economic Union – a treaty to establish free movement of goods and services between Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan – came into effect in 2015, though other foreign relations are much cooler. Strict Schengen border rules block illegal immigration and trade across the shared border with Poland, and the United States holds sanctions against a number of Belarusian officials for human rights violations.

Belarus translates to “white Russia,” representative of the heavy, ongoing influence the Kremlin has over its former constituent. This borrowed identity, in a sense, has also limited the development of a national culture. Russian replaced Belarusian as the official language in 1995, and in capital city Minsk, the headquarters of the KGB – the Russian secret police and intelligence agency – are an imposing reminder of the nation’s history.

Since his election in 1994, President Aleksander Lukashenko has driven increasingly restrictive policies that have elicited the label of “Europe’s last dictatorship” and drawn condemnation abroad. Protests challenged Lukashenko’s election in 2010, but were limited in 2015. Once one of the more prosperous post-Soviet states, Belarus now has among the lowest gross domestic product growth rates in the world. The great majority of industry, including communal farms, is state-run and heavily subsidized.

About three-quarters of Belarusians live in urban areas spread across the country. Much of its Jewish population was lost during World War II, and now the majority of citizens belong to the Orthodox church.

Belarus is a member of a handful of international organizations including the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the International Monetary Fund.

Best Countries is a rankings, news and analysis project created to capture how countries are perceived on a global scale. The rankings evaluate 80 countries across 24 rankings drawn from a survey of more than 21,000 global citizens, measuring 75 dimensions that have the potential to drive trade, travel and investment and directly affect national economies.